Best of Intentions
by Shubatra
Summary: When Aqua's birthday comes around again, Ven wants to give her a present she'll truly enjoy. However, enlisting outside help may just make things worse.


**Notes:** My personal headcanon is that Ven cannot give girls presents to save his life. Boys, he does all right with, but girls... girls are mysterious creatures whose minds he cannot comprehend. But, being Ven, he really wants to give everyone something they'll _really_ like and... sometimes he missteps XD Headcanon among my friends also states that everyone gets Aqua books for her birthday because she really likes them, which lead to the idea that spawned this fic.

And no, I don't like the book in question. However could you tell?

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Ven suspected that sometimes his presents in the past hadn't been... _well-received_. Or, considering he'd only had two birthdays with Aqua before this, all of them. She always smiled, her eyes and her mouth showing gratitude for whatever he put in her hands. She always thanked him, very genuinely. She was always _grateful_ for his gifts, he was sure of that. But Ven had noticed that after he gave them to her, he never saw those books again, when Aqua tended to carry around the ones she liked with her three at a time. And seeing as how he wanted her to actually _enjoy_ something he gave her, he'd decided to try a different tactic this time.

Still, the blank look on Aqua's face after she'd carefully removed the paper he'd wrapped the latest birthday book in was not what he was expecting.

"D-Do you like it?" he tentatively ventured after several seconds of near-absolute silence. When she still didn't respond, or even _move_, Ven took a step forward, raising his hands a little although not at all sure what he was going to do. "They had a bunch of copies, and I saw one of the girls from Corner Sweets reading it the other-"

"You got this at the bookstore?"

Wince. When Aqua's voice was flat like that, no good was coming.

"The- The lady at the store said it was really popular, she said girls y-your age like thi-"

"She did, did she?"

He was dead.

Ven winced at Aqua's tone, taking a step back, then another, as she turned her eyes on him, her face still stony. Under the unmoving features, though, he could see the stirrings of anger - and worse, _annoyance_. Anger, with Aqua, would fade away as understanding came. _Annoyance_, however, would hang around until the end of time. Annoyance would follow him closely, snapping at his heels and destroying him in tiny little specks. Annoyance would ruin his standing in Aqua's good graces forever.

"Y...Yes?"

Her eyes shifted back down to the book's dark cover, the black barely relieved by white font and a fruit of some kind. They narrowed, ever so slightly, and Ven silently prayed that whatever Aqua did to him, she wouldn't do even worse to the poor woman at the bookstore. Maybe if he was quick enough, he could make it down there in time to warn her that her life was now in danger-

"Thank you, Ven." Her words were worse than cool, full of ice, and she didn't look up at him as she said them. "It means a lot to me. Now, don't you think you have magic to be practicing?"

This was almost worse - clearly his death was still coming, she was just trying to decide the proper way of doing it. And that comment about magic... "W-What kind of magic?"

Aqua glanced up at him then, her eyes narrowed to an entirely too dangerous level. "Fire spells."

"O...Okay. I'll... see you in the courtyard, then?" At least he would die in a place he loved.

"Yes, Ven. You certainly will."

He backed up one foot, then the other, then turned and almost ran out the door. One last look behind him just before it closed showed Aqua still staring down at the book in her hands, her expression one of hidden malice.

He spent the rest of the day dutifully in the courtyard, practicing his magic with an energy that even he as a dedicated student rarely displayed, because maybe if Aqua saw him obeying her implied command she'd be more inclined to take mercy on him. He was surprised, though, when he didn't actually see her for the rest of the day, nor at dinner, nor before going to bed when she didn't come in for the nightly ritual of him letting her fuss with his hair. But the next day Ven wasn't at all surprised when he discovered a charred pile of ashes off to the edge of the practice area. What he _was_ surprised at was the fact that Aqua's fire spells hadn't completely obliterating the cover to microscopic bits, leaving most of the picture of two pale arms holding a red fruit and part of a strange name beginning with "S" intact.

_Good thing I didn't get her the other three. I don't think I would've been able to avoid it then._


End file.
